Chương 379: Outside the Gate

The transit back to the ANON headquarters was a matter of a single, silent folding of space. I stepped through the coordinate sub-layers, appearing directly within the hum of the chrome-plated server core. The Administrator was already waiting, her golden temple-implants pulsing with a rhythmic, soft light as she stared at the massive holographic projection of our sector's outer rim. Floating beside the screen was Kasian's spectral form, his translucent hands resting on a projection of his historical ledger.

"You've found something," I said, walking toward the central console.

"We have, Lord," the Administrator replied, her voice maintaining its clinical, metered tone.

"It is not a high-priority threat, but it is an anomaly. After we integrated Kasian's ancestral records with our logic arrays, we were able to process forty-seven thousand previously un-scannable frequencies. We were able to detect the scrying signature on Ferra and traced it towards a specific coordinate within our galaxy. One of our deep-space monitoring probes — launched toward the outer systems three months ago — has pinged a significant concentration of Essence matching that signature." She tapped the console.

The holographic map zoomed out, past the orbit of Ferra, settling on a distant, copper-colored dot located near the very edge of our quarantine veil.

"Node System G-42," Kasian said, his voice echoing with a papery rustle.

"According to the records of the Prime System's initial sweeps, this world within our sector was supposedly a dormant planet. But the probe's telemetry is clear: there is a high-density build-up of Essence occurring on the surface. The growth is localized, rapid, and structured."

"Could it be the Courts trying to probe our veil?" I asked, my eyes scanning the coordinate lines.

"Highly unlikely," the Administrator answered.

"The Iron Cloak is an absolute systemic block. If an external entity attempted to pierce the barrier, our outer relays would have triggered a sector-wide alarm. This energy is internal. It is originating from a planet within Sector Z-99 itself. It is likely another integrated world — or a pocket of survivors — that is experiencing a sudden, rapid acceleration of their own system development." I leaned against the console, thinking.

"An integrated world growing right in our backyard. And they have the means to send 'scrying probes' into our planet. If they continue to expand without monitoring, they'll eventually run into our defensive network. Or worse, their data leaks will draw the attention of the Courts, Kyorians or other enemies the moment our quarantine veil drops."

"An investigative expedition is paramount," Jeeves agreed.

"But we must be careful, Master. A world undergoing rapid integration is like a cornered beast. They will view any external presence as an invader. Their probes were purely inquisitive by nature, so we can't assume their intentions are hostile." I thanked the Administrator for the telemetry and returned to the Sanctum, gathering our core council around the basalt table.

"We go in with a diplomatic approach," I told the group, looking from Anna to Lucas and then to Jeeves.

"If they are survivors of a fresh integration, they'll be terrified. If we send a full vanguard of Tier 7s or deploy Rexxar, we'll trigger a panic. I can go alone for now."

"Alone?" Anna's brow furrowed, her silver eyes narrowing.

"Eren, we don't know what's waiting on G-42. Even if it's a lower-tier world, a sudden spatial intrusion could turn hostile in seconds. Let Silas or me go with you. Besides, you really want to handle all the talking?"

"I can traverse the spatial gaps in a single day," I explained, leaning back.

"My hybrid core can handle the friction of the deep void without needing a transport ship. It is faster, quieter, and far less threatening. The moment I find a stable foothold on the planet, I'll open a portal back to Bastion. You'll be there in a heartbeat if things go sideways." Kasian floated closer, his brow furrowed as he offered a word of caution.

"Master, there is another variable to consider. In newly integrated worlds, the local mana is unrefined and volatile — what the ancient architects called the 'Unrefined Crucible' state. A high-tier entity like yourself acts like a lightning rod. If your presence leaks even a fraction of its true density, it could trigger spontaneous atmospheric collapses or localized mana storms on their surface. Your suppression must be absolute."

"I'll keep the Nullifying Veil clamped tight," I assured him. Lucas let out a slow, resigned sigh.

"He's right, Anna. A single traveler is a curiosity. An armored squad can be a declaration of war. But we can't just knock on a neighbor's door empty-handed, especially if they are still in the panic phase of their integration."

"I have prepared for that eventuality, Master," Jeeves said, stepping forward with a small, sealed silver-alloy chest.

"A diplomatic package. Inside are twelve vials of Eliza's high-purity cellular-restoration salves, and a space compressed velvet pouch of high quality meats, spirit-wheat and other crops."

"No weapons, no heavy cores — those look like threats," Eliza added, leaning over Jeeves' shoulder with a grin.

"But food and medicine is hard to argue with. If they're newly integrated, their local hospitals are probably collapsing under the strain of system-mutations. And Jeeves' spirit-wheat is a gesture of agricultural surplus. It's hard to stay angry at a man who brings you bread." Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. I took the chests, storing them into the secure vaults of my armory.

"Perfect. It shows we have wealth, but we aren't looking to use it to crush them."

"Just make sure to let us help, Eren, we'll be ready when you open the portal," Lucas reiterated. Before my departure, I paid a quick visit to the Academy training grounds to ensure our administrative affairs were in order. The students were currently practicing under Eliza's supervision, their gravity-conduits producing a soft, humming draft in the courtyard. I pulled Jared and Vesk aside, briefed them on our secondary defense parameters, and told Talise to keep her wind-training steady.

Toby was sitting on a nearby bench, carefully reading a low-grade botany manual Eliza had given him, a small, proud smile on his face. Once the logistics were locked, I walked to the edge of Bastion's high-terrace, looked out at the violet-tinted horizon of my city, and stepped off the edge into the sky. I engaged [Void Emperor's Omnipresence], redefining the coordinates of my position until the atmosphere of Ferra vanished, replaced by the absolute, frozen silence of the deep void.

Traversing the cosmos through the sub-layers of the Lattice is not like walking down a street; it is like jumping between islands of gravity in an ocean of starless, silent dark. Every step was a translation of millions of miles. Because of my neutron mass, my transit actually pulled at the loose space-dust of the void, creating a faint, trailing orbit of stellar debris behind my steps.

The visuals of the deep galaxy were spectacular, a silent, beautiful tapestry that no mortal on Earth had ever been allowed to see with naked eyes. I stepped past a massive, dead gas giant, its frozen rings of methane ice reflecting the distant, cold blue light of a young star. I drifted through the outer currents of a cosmic nebula — a colossal cloud of violet and gold dust that wreathed my black carapace in a harmless, static-clatter of raw elemental mana.

At one point during the journey, I crossed a dead space zone where the Prime System's local coordination was incredibly thin. The void felt heavier there, pressing against my soul like a physical weight. I navigated past a dying white dwarf star that was slowly siphoning the gaseous envelope of a neighboring red giant. My [Voidflame Apocalypse] reacted instinctively to the sight, my dual core humming in quiet resonance with that massive stellar decay.

It was a perfect, natural demonstration of entropy — the universe's way of deleting obsolete resources to make room for something new. I paused for a single minute, meditating as I observed the cold, quiet lesson of the dying star before stepping back into the spatial current of Sector Z-99. By the end of the day, Node System G-42 loomed in my vision. The planet was a copper-red dust ball, its surface dominated by vast, arid deserts and jagged, volcanic mountain ranges.

As I entered the upper atmosphere, keeping the [Prime Axiom's Nullifying Veil] clamped tightly around me, my omnipresence perception began to scan the surface. I read the ambient mana currents. It wasn't the dense, thick, highly structured pressure of Ferra, curated after multiple System rewards and the integration of Leoric's inventions. It was wild, frantic, and thin — a disorganized tangle of basic elemental signatures.

The planet's crust was heavily saturated with ferrous oxides and kinetic quartz, causing the ambient energy to crackle with an erratic, metallic friction.

"An average population tier of three to four," I calculated, observing the faint, unstable signatures of the settlements below. It made sense. They were still in the early, messy Consolidation phase that Ferra had passed a year ago, expedited by our success. The System had likely just finished dropping their waves of local dungeons, and their cities were still reeling from the chaos of their new reality.

The magic they were wielding was still physical and volatile — noisy, smoke-heavy spells like localized fires or raw kinetic stone-spikes, lacking the clean, conceptual elegance of high-tier authority. I drifted down toward a vast, silent basin of rust-colored sand, landing without a single sound. The wind here was dry, carrying the scent of sulfur and old iron. I stood in the center of the desert, completely invisible to any local detection.

Once satisfied that the area was clear of any immediate civilian presence, I raised my right hand, drawing on my star-cores to weave the spatial coordinates for a portal back to Bastion. I didn't drop my [Nullifying Veil] — I kept my own body conceptually erased — but the portal itself was a massive, violent intrusion of spatial logic, almost impossible to completely hide.

As the violet-black archway began to tear open, cutting through the local space with a loud, hum-like vibration, the sand around the basin suddenly shifted. Through the shimmering heat distortion of the desert, dozens of figures emerged from the rocky ridges. As they drew closer, the heat distortion cleared, revealing their physical forms. They were humanoid, but distinctly alien — sharing an uncanny, almost mocking resemblance to the classic "Grey" extraterrestrials from Earth's old sci-fi fictions.

They possessed large, bulbous, hairless craniums offset above narrow, fragile shoulders. Their skin was a smooth, monochromatic ash-grey that looked almost rubbery under the twin suns of G-42. Most striking were their eyes: oversized, liquid-black wells that lacked pupils, reflecting the violet flare of my opening portal in twin pools of darkness. Their slender, elongated limbs ended in four-fingered hands that clutched crude but functional mana-conduits.

Some wore tightly fitted copper masks that contoured to their thin, nose-less faces, while others exposed their smooth, jawless mouths to the sulfurous desert air. They were clad in rugged, iron-threaded robes that hummed with unrefined protective magic. The moment the purple light of my portal flared, they aggressively rushed toward my coordinate. Instantly, they began drawing glowing red arrays in the sand, their hands raised as they initiated high-frequency spell-chants.

Wind-shears, kinetic spears, and violent, blood-red lightning arrays began to spark in the dry air, all of them aiming directly at the opening gate. The welcoming committee had arrived. And they were already preparing to fire.